Friday, September 2, 2011

It can be a very confusing and frustrating to setup wireless broadband like Tata Photon, Reliance Netconnect, etc. on Linux. Here's my experience on successfully setting up Reliance Netconnect on Fedora 15 using the wvdial PPP utility. The same could work for Tata Photon or any other modem based Internet service.

The concept is fairly simple. All such services work through a modem connected to the computer via the USB interface. We need to setup a PPP connection to the service provider via the modem. the wvdial command is more intelligent wrapper over the basic ppp utility.

1) Connect the USB Modem (Huawei EC 150 in my case)
2) Open terminal as root (or run the commands using sudo)
3) Type wvdialconf on the command prompt. This will create a default configuration file /etc/wvdial.conf with the following contents

5) Type wvdial on the command prompt. By default it takes the setting from /etc/wvdial.conf if required you could place this file anywhere and pass it as the first argument to wvdial.

[root@juby juby]# wvdial

--> WvDial: Internet dialer version 1.61

--> Initializing modem.

--> Sending: ATZ

ATZ

OK

--> Sending: ATQ0 V1 E1 S0=0 &C1 &D2 +FCLASS=0

ATQ0 V1 E1 S0=0 &C1 &D2 +FCLASS=0

OK

--> Modem initialized.

--> Sending: ATDT#777

--> Waiting for carrier.

ATDT#777

CONNECT

--> Carrier detected. Waiting for prompt.

~[7f]}#@!}!}!} }8}"}&} } } } }#}$@#}%}&"7Hj}'}"}(}"e[12]~

--> PPP negotiation detected.

--> Starting pppd at Fri Sep 2 10:38:55 2011

--> Pid of pppd: 1836

--> Using interface ppp0

--> pppd: <

--> pppd: <

--> pppd: <

--> local IP address 115.242.244.59

--> pppd: <

--> remote IP address 220.224.141.145

--> pppd: <

--> primary DNS address 202.138.103.190

--> pppd: <

--> secondary DNS address 202.138.117.60

--> pppd: <

6) Add the primary and secondary DNS addresses to /etc/resolv.conf with the following entries:

nameserver 202.138.103.190
nameserer 202.138.117.60

7) Make sure that Internet traffic is routed through the PPP interface using ifconfig command.
If there are other interfaces (say LAN) turn them off by typing ifconfig if-name down
8) Ensure that the default traffic handler goes through the PPP interface. Type route on the command prompt. You should see something as follows:

[root@juby etc]# route

Kernel IP routing table

Destination Gateway Genmask Flags Metric Ref Use Iface

220.224.141.145 * 255.255.255.255 UH 0 0 0 ppp0

192.168.122.0 * 255.255.255.0 U 0 0 0 virbr0

default * 0.0.0.0 U 0 0 0 ppp0

The default entry ensures that Internet traffic is routed through the PPP interface.

Till step 5) is usually straightforward and the procedure is explained in many other articles and blogs. However many people typically face problems from step 6) onwards, wherein inspite of having their modem setup and connected, they are not able to access the Internet.

Note: Please see the man pages for wvdial, wvdialconf, ifconfig, route for the details of these commands.

This approach should work on most Linux distros and versions provided wvdial is installed and the system is able to detect the USB dongle.